NWR - Christmas Eve 7 Fishes - what are your traditions?

So for those of you who are not Italian or have never heard of this - on Christmas Eve we have the 7 fishes dinner. You aren't allowed to eat meat and there is a reason for the 7 but I'm not 100% sure what it is.

Anyway - my parents and I just picked up our fish last night and my mouth is already watering. It's my FAV part of Christmas - ok, that might sound sad, but it's the truth! My dad does most of the cooking (which is a treat) and we both go to town on muscles, clams, shrimp, calamari, scallops - and he gets an eel (that I'm not a big fan of).

Anyway - do any of you girls have any Christmas Eve/Christmas traditions?

ETA: for spelling

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Posted by WeezyGirl2354

So for those of you who are not Italian or have never heard of this - on Christmas Eve we have the 7 fishes dinner. You aren't allowed to eat meat and there is a reason for the 7 but I'm not 100% sure what it is.

Anyway - my parents and I just picked up our fish last night and my mouth is already watering. It's my FAV part of Christmas - ok, that might sound sad, but it's the truth! My dad does most of the cooking (which is a treat) and we both go to town on muscles, clams, shrimp, calamari, scallops - and he gets an eel (that I'm not a big fan of).

Anyway - do any of you girls have any Christmas Eve/Christmas traditions?

ETA: for spelling

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If the 7 fishes came about at the same time as no meat on Fridays during Lent, it's because the Catholic church was invested in the fish market in Italy, so they made that rule to boost sales.

Shellfish makes me die, so my family had stopped the tradition years ago, but now that my FH is my FH, his family has their Christmas celebration on the Eve and has a big Cuban dinner and opens gifts at midnight. So I go there, and my family has gladly brought back their fish tradition in my absence - I'm pretty sure that they don't miss me at all on Christmas Eve.

My family does all the seafood. I dont know about 7 fishes, sometimes we do less, sometimes we do more! Depends on who's there!

One thing that we ALWAYS do is watch 'Christmas Vacation', that's a big deal with my family. it's been on a lot lately, so I have to keep myself from watching it!

we used to do the whole fish thing and we had soooo many ppl at our house. Since then, so many of them have passed away or moved to FL, so our celebrations have gotten much smaller. And now that we realize that ppl aren't as crazy about fish as most Italians are, my mom makes some shrimp dishes, eggplant parm, and even (I know you're not supposed to eat meat!) sausage just to make everyone happy. FH's fav part about Christmas Eve is the fish too, so don't feel bad about being excited for it LOL He lives for the porpe (octopus) salad that his family makes, so I'm gonna have to learn how to make that! In the future, I hope to continue the 7fishes tradition and make the holidays what they used to be, even tho they're still great now

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Posted by WeezyGirl2354

So for those of you who are not Italian or have never heard of this - on Christmas Eve we have the 7 fishes dinner. You aren't allowed to eat meat and there is a reason for the 7 but I'm not 100% sure what it is.

Anyway - my parents and I just picked up our fish last night and my mouth is already watering. It's my FAV part of Christmas - ok, that might sound sad, but it's the truth! My dad does most of the cooking (which is a treat) and we both go to town on muscles, clams, shrimp, calamari, scallops - and he gets an eel (that I'm not a big fan of).

Anyway - do any of you girls have any Christmas Eve/Christmas traditions?

ETA: for spelling

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we do the same thing! That is my fav part too!! I look forward to it every year!

I never heard of this before but I LOVE learning something new...

FH's family does this, but they do WAY more than 7 for some reason. And it's just the 5 of us, they're crazy!

I know you're not supposed to eat meat (not sure if that's a current rule or not) but FH is a baby and has to have his chicken parm, so FMIL makes that every year as well.

Last year was the first year I stayed there for Christmas morning and I'll be doing that again this year. In fact, FH is picking me up tonight and i'm staying at his house til Saturday.

MY family always used to tthrow a HUGE party Christmas Eve... all of my mom's 9 brothers and sisters and all 30 of my cousins used to come and we'd do a big secret santa/pot luck diner, but that has ceased now that everyone is grown and so many people have moved away,s o I'm happy to have a quiet ITalian Christmas Eve with FH's family every year instead

Bumping for other brides to comment on this Christmas Eve. Thanks for sharing!

The pot of gravy is already on the stove and the house smells awesome here LOL

Merry Christmas ladies!!!!

I am Italian and I do not eat seafood so my tradition would be getting taco bell! It's a little silly but it just stuck! After church, we would stop at Taco Bell and then travel home to start the seafood dinner!

I am italian also and we don't do the fish. We have a rib roast, gnocchi, calzone, stuffed muchrooms, bruschetta, breaded asparagus and lots of wine.